Slack roll lifting device



June 20, 1961 G. MANNING 2,988,798

SLACK ROLL LIFTING DEVICE Filed June 11, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

GEORGE MANNING 9A1; 6 ml ATTORNEYS June 20, 1961 G. MANNING 2,988,798

SLACK ROLL LIFTING DEVICE Filed June 11, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet- 2 I III III I IIIII I I 24 I I INVENTOR.

GEORGE MANNING I is. 2. p1

ATTORNEYS United States Patent 2,988,798 SLACK ROLL LIFI'ING DEVICE 7 George Manning, Gaston "County, N.C., assignor to Cooker Machine & Foundry Company, Gastonia, N.C., a corporation of North Carolina Filed June 11, 1959, Ser. No. 819,682 7 Claims. (Cl. 28-35) This invention relates to textile yarn slack roll lifting apparatus and more particularly, to such apparatus having automatic control means associated therewith.

During the manufacture of textile yarn, it is customary to handle individual yarn ends in the form of a moving sheet or warp. This warp is subjected to various treating processes during manufacture, and it often becomes necessary to stop the moving warp. Upon stoppage of the running warp sheet, the individual warp ends tend to overrun and become tangled due to rolling of the yarn. Tangles of this sort can needlessly delay manufacturing operations and greatly increase the cost of the manufactured yarn product.

One attempt which has been made to obviate this difficulty is the location of a freely rotatable roll positioned transversely with respect to and in contact with the upper surface of the running warp. This roll is normally supported for vertical movement at its end by suitable guides, and when an over-running of the warp occurs, the slack which develops in the warp is accumulated by the freely rotatable roll which drops by gravity, thereby maintaining tension and preventing tangling.

During the running of the warp at normal tension, the conventional slack roll merely rotates freely on top of the warp, revolving at a revolution rate determined by the linear speed of the warp sheet. At speeds above seventy-five yards per minute, and particularly at speeds greater than one hundred yards per minute, the speed of the slack roll becomes extremely great. It is conven tional practice to make the slack roll with a diameter of the order of one to approximately three inches. Therefore, at a warp speed of 125 yards per minute, a one inch roll would be rotating at approximately 1500 r.p.m.

- Since it is requisite that the slack roll be free to float vertically, this high speed operation results in considerable vibration and chattering of the slack roll bearings.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a slack roll assembly in which the freely rotatable roll may be lifted from the running warp sheet during normal high speed operation.

It is another object of this invention to provide a slack roll assembly which operates without an undue amount of noise or chattering due to vibration of the slack roll or roll bearings.

It is another object of this invention to provide a slack roll assembly, the slack roll bearings of which have an extremely long life.

It is another object of this invention to provide a safe slack roll assembly which does not endanger operating personnel.

Another object of this invention is to provide a slack roll assembly, the position of the slack roll with respect to the running warp being automatically controlled in relation to the linear warp speed.

Other objects and advantages of the apparatus of this invention will become apparent in the following specification and claims and in the drawings of which:

FIG. 1 is an elevational view showing one form of the apparatus of this invention mounted in combination with an integrated textile yarn processing apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a detailed elevational view of such form of the apparatus of this invention.

. FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the lines and in the direction of the arrows III-III of FIG. 2.

Patented June 20, 1961 FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the lines and in the direction of the arrows IV--IV of FIG. 2.

Referring to FIG. 1, a slack roll assembly 13 in accordance with this invention is shown in its relation to a conventional slasher apparatus for textile yarns. As shown, such apparatus consists of a plurality of yarn supply means 11; a size box 12, constructed in accordance with the apparatus of US. Patent 2,862,280 issued to Thomas F. Suggs, and assigned to Cooker Machine and Foundry Company, on which the automatic slack roll lifting device 13'is mounted; a plurality of drying cylinders 14 mounted in a connected train, the cylinder train being driven by a motor 15 by means of a sprocket chain 16 and a pinion 17; and apparatus 18, which is shown schematically to indicate subsequent processing sections which might be utilized during the manufacture of textile yarn.

Referring now to FIG. 2, an angled bracket 21 is mounted on the entry side of Wall 22 of size box 12, by means of stud bolts 23. A rectangular guide member 24 is mounted vertically on bracket 21 by means of countersunk screws 25. Guide member 24 (see FIG. 4) consists of a web 26 having mounted integrally therewith a perimetric channel 27. A flange 28 is welded to web 26 between the ends thereof and perpendicular thereto. A support 29, which extends from other structural elements of size box 12, is connected to flange 28 by stud bolts 30, thereby forming a horizontal support member. A carrier roll 32, mounted in a bearing block 33 is attached to support 29 by means of stud bolts 34. Similarly, an entry roll 65 is mounted in a bearing block 36 and attached to a structural element of size box 12 by means of stud bolts 37.

The apparatus just described is mounted relative to size box 12 so as to be positioned clear of the maximum width warp accepted by said size box. A similar supporting structure is mounted transversely opposite the just described structure at the opposite end of size box 12, this structure being similarly positioned.

A slack roll 41, having a length greater than that of the maximum size warp accepted by the size box 12, is shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, wherein it is rotatably mounted at the ends thereof in a bearing 42, said bearing being in turn mounted in a housing block 43. Housing block 43 is accurately machined so as to have a sliding fit with respect to perimetric channel 27, within which it is positioned so as who vertically movable. For purposes described hereinafter, housing block 43 is manufactured from a temporarily magnetizable material.

A mounting bracket 44 is fixedly attached to guide 24 at the uppermost end thereof and extends above guide 24, bracket 44 having aflixed thereto a solenoid 45. A plunger 46 of solenoid 45 is mounted centrally thereof and has formed at its lower distal end a clevis 47. Attached to clevis 47 in a pivotal relationship therewith is a shoe 48, said shoe being so configured as to have a surface area substantially equivalent to that of the upper surface of housing block 43, for purposes to be hereinafter described.

A channel bracket 51 is attached to guide 24 at the uppermost end thereof, by means of a set screw 52. Bracket 51 has fixedly attached thereto a limit switch 53, said switch being operated by an integral sensing lever 55, which protrudes therefrom in the direction of the axis of slack roll 41 and normal thereto.

ELECTRICAL SYSTEM The apparatus of this invention is automatically controlled by means of an electrical system, said system being diagrammatically illustrated in FIG. 2, wherein there is shown a source of alternating or direct current; a motor 15 having positive and negative terminals; a variable'resistance rheostat consisting of a controller 61, a resistance coil 62 and an adjustable high speed terminal 63, said adjuster being mounted in an insulated adjusting bracket 64. Limit switch 53 is a normally off switch.

Operation In operation, a moving sheet of individual warp threads 65, proceeds over carrier roll 32 under slack roll 41 over entry roll 35 and into size box 12. As shown in FIG. 2, controller 61 has been moved from the o position to a slow position on resistance coil 62. Motor is therefore energized, and has begun to drive the processing apparatus whereby the warp moves at a relatively slow linear speed. As the warp speed is increased by advancing controller 61 towards the fast position, the tension of the warp sheet between carrier roll 32 and entry roll 35 increases thereby forcing slack roll 41 and its accompanying bearing 42 towards the uppermost end of guide 24. The uppermost position of slack roll 41 and its supporting bearing 42 is shown in phantom outline in FIG. 2. As slack roll 41 approaches this uppermost position, the roll contacts sensing lever 55, thereby closing the contacts of limit switch 53 which in turn completes the electric circuit between solenoid 45 and the negative terminal of motor 15.

Since the warp sheet only reaches its highest linear speed when the controller 61 has been moved to a fast position, the actuation of solenoid 45 will only occur when both the slack roll has contacted the sensing lever and the controller 61 has made contact with the adjustable terminal 63.

Upon being actuated, the solenoid 45 draws plunger 46 upwardly and at the same time magnetizes the plunger with its integral clevis 47 and the attached shoe 48. The position of shoe 48 is such that these temporarily magnetized elements contact the housing block 43 of slack roll 41, holding said block tightly thereto and thereby lifting the slack roll slightly above the normal running level of the warp sheet 65.

It will be seen that whenever controller 61 is moved from contact with terminal 63, which action occurs when the warp speed is lowered, the plunger 46, the clevis 47 and shoe 48 are demagnetized, the electrical circuit to solenoid 45 is broken, thereby causing the release of housing block 43 and the corresponding lowering of slack roll 41 into contact with the running warp 65. As lower speeds of the warp are reached and a slack develops, the slack roll 41 moves downwardly by gravity thereby accumulating the slack until the roll has reached its lowermost limit as indicated by the line position of roll 41 shown in FIG. 2.

As thus described, it will be seen that the apparatus of this invention comprises an automatic slack roll lifting device which makes it possible to control accumulated slack in a running sheet of warp yarns and to automatically lift the slack roll from the running warp sheet at high linear rates of warp movement. It is thereby possible by means of the apparatus of this invention to achieve a relatively silent slack roll operation, since the slack roll only rotates for considerable periods of time at slow speeds where vibration and chattering of slack roll bearings is not a critical problem. Furthermore, by eliminating rotation of the slack roll during the normal high speed operation of the warp moving apparatus, bearing life of the slack roll is thereby substantially increased, with resulting economies in operation. Moreover, a safety factor is introduced into the operation of the automatic slack roll device of this invention since there is practically no danger of the slack roll and bearing assembly bouncing free of the perimetric channel 27 at the relatively low rotary speed to which the slack roll is subjected for any substantial period of time.

While the slack roll lifting apparatus defined herein is directed to such apparatus in use with a size box, it is understood that this invention is not limited to such use, but as well is applicable to many other uses within the conventional textile processing apparatus layouts. For example, such a slack roll lifting device might as well be used between the leaving side of the size box 12 and the drying cylinders 14 and again this apparatus might be used between the drying cylinders 14 and such apparatus as is indicated by numeral 18 in FIG. 1. It will be obvious, therefore, that my invention is intended to be limited only as defined by the following claims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In a textile treating apparatus wherein a sheet of textile material is continuously moved from one supporting member to another and wherein a slack roll is provided above the moving sheet and at a location intermediate the supports in order to take up slack in the sheet as it moves from one said support to the other, the combination which comprises speed regulating means connected to regulate the speed of movement of said sheet, and automatic slack roll lifting means operative in response to variation of speed of said sheet to lift the slack roll upwardly to a position spaced above the sheet when the sheet reaches a predetermined speed.

2. In an apparatus having a pair of rolls together with driving means for moving a sheet of textile material from one such roll to the other, the combination which comprises controlling means for regulating the speed of the driving means, a slack roll located above the moving sheet and freely movable up and down with such sheet and normally supported by the tension of such sheet, slack roll lifting means having capacity to lift the slack roll above the running sheet, energizing means connected from said speed control means to said lifting means to energize said lifting means at a predetermined setting of the speed control means, and controlling means connected to said speed control means and to said slack roll lifting means for preventing the operation of the lifting means when the slack roll is located below a predeter-mined level, but permitting the energization of said lifting means when the slack roll reaches said predetermined level.

3. The combination defined in claim 2, wherein adjustable means are provided in the speed regulating means for adjusting the value of said predetermined speed which energizes said slack roll lifting device.

4. An improved textile warp slack roll positioning apparatus comprising in combination a freely rotatable roll, said roll being journalled in vertically movable bearings and said roll being normally supported by a moving warp of textile yarns; electromagnetic means positioned above said movable bearings, whereby upon actuation said electromagnetic means attracts the movable bearings and causes said roll to be lifted out of contact with said moving warp; and automatic means for actuating said electromagnetic means according to the vertical position of said roll and the linear speed of said moving warp.

5. The apparatus in accordance with claim 4 wherein said electromagnetic means comprises a solenoid, the plunger of said solenoid being substantially vertically orientated and having pivotally affixed to the lower end thereof a member constructed of material which may be only temporarily magnetized.

6. An improved textile warp slack roll positioning apparatus comprising in combination a freely rotatable roll, said roll being journalled in vertically movable bearings and said roll being normally supported by a moving warp of textile yarns; electromagnetic means positioned above said movable bearings whereby the actuation of said electromagnetic means causes said roll to be lifted out of contact with said moving warp; and automatic means for actuating said electromagnetic means according to the vertical position of said roll and the linear speed of said moving warp, wherein said automatic means comprises an electric motor, the speed of said motor determining the linear speed of said moving warp; rheostat means connected in series with said motor; adjustable terminal means connected in series with said electromagnetic means and the negative terminal or said motor; said terminal means being so positioned with respect to said rheostat means as to make electrical contact with the control member of said rheostat means at a low resistance position of said control member; and normally open switch means connected in series with said electromagnetic means and the negative terminal of said motor, whereby said electromagnetic means and said switch means. are connected in parallel with said motor and rheostat by said adjustable terminal means.

7. An improved textile warp slack roll positioning apparatus comprising in combination a freely rotatable roll, said roll being journalled in vertically movable bearings and said roll being normally supported by a moving warp of textile yarns; electromagnetic means positioned above said movable bearings whereby the actuation of said electromagnetic means causes said roll to be lifted out of contact with said moving warp; and automatic means for actuating said electromagnetic means according to the vertical position of said roll and the linear speed of said moving warp, wherein said automatic means comprises an electric motor, the speed or. said motor determining the linear speed of said moving warp; a rheostat connected in series with said motor, said rheostat comprising a resistance coil, a control arm and an adjustable terminal insulated from said resistance coil and positioned adjacent the low resistance and of said resistance coil, said terminal being connected in series with said electromagnetic means and the negative terminal of said motor whereby said control arm makes electrical contact with said terminal means at a low resistance position of said control arm; and a normally open switch connected in series with said electromagnetic means and the negative terminal of said motor, whereby said electromagnetic means and said switch are connected in parallel with said motor and rheostat by said adjustable terminal.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Lambach Nov. 24, 1942 2,491,439 Bodansky Dec. 13, 1949 

